toon town time!

on our third day at the disneyland resort, we decided to start the day in toon town. (i actually had to start the day by taking my nephew to the airport, but my sister came along and traffic wasn't too bad. not surprisingly, we still ended up in the park and at the meeting place in toon town before everyone else!)  the best part about toon town is all of the fun cartoon-meets-real-neighborhood stuff - a police station, a jail, a gas station... we had fun playing with all of the props!

my neice calling the police 

 

and reading minnie's email - scandalous!

in toon town, you also get to visit the homes of some of the characters, mickey, minnie, goofy, donald (who, oddly, lives on a boat). at minnie's house, she stands on the front porch and signs autographs. and then you wander through her house, read her email, wash her dishes... okay, it is a little strange, but they are cartoon characters, after all. after touring minnie's house we walked next door to mickey's. (by the way, i would love to live next door to my boyfriend!)  at mickey's, you can play the piano, lay in pluto's dog bed, and even go through mickey's movie studio - that's where he is waiting for you to take pictures and sign autographs.

the mouse, the myth, the legend

after toon town, we headed over to what used to be tom sawyer island. it is now called "pirates lair" or something like that, and they have "rebranded" it with lots of pirate booty - literally, there's a whole treasure corner, and treasure in the old caves, and treasure in the treehouse. anyways, we spent hours running around the island, exploring all of the paths and caves, and, of course, finding all of the treasure. it was wonderful! the only down side was that, after a while, my sister called me and told me that someone had climbed to the roof of the building on the front of the island (the building is visible from a section of disneyland across the river). she suggested we stay where we were - which happened to be at the opposite end of the island. the kids were enjoying the giant pile of pirate gold, so it wasn't a problem. just a few minutes later, my sister called back and said that disney security had gotten the person down, without incident. it was just in time - the kids were ready to head back to the treehouse in the front of the island.

we played in the treehouse for a while, when a disney cast member came by... he told us that the island was closing for the day, and we needed to catch the ferry back to disneyland. i was a bit surprised, since the island was not scheduled to close for another hour, but i realized as we walked to the ferry dock, that the island was closing because of the incident my sister had called me about. there were cast members strategically placed to keep people from continuing to wander around the island, security team members at the front of the island, and at the ferry dock, and there were anaheim police officers coming to the island on the ferry. it was a bit dramatic! but of course, we didn't see any of the drama, just the aftermath.

we headed over to fantasy land to ride the traditional rides: snow white, pinnochio, dumbo, the carousel... and the teacups. i definitely sat that one out. when i was quite young, my sister and cousin took me on the teacups and spun me around until i nearly puked. (see below for a re-enactment)  and i've never liked spinning rides!